Ella Langley, a red-hot country newcomer from Alabama, scored a major coup on Thursday, earning eight nominations for the 2025 ACM Awards.

Langley, a Hope Hull native, is this year’s top nominee for the prestigious country awards — ahead of artists such as Morgan Wallen, Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson, who received seven nominations apiece.

Six of Langley’s nominations came for “You Look Like You Love Me‚” a duet with Alabama’s Riley Green. The hit song, written by Langley with Green and Aaron Ratiere, is nominated for:

• Single of the Year
• Music Event of the Year
• Song of the Year (Langley is nominated as both artist and songwriter in this category)
• Visual Media of the Year (Langley is nominated as both artist and director)

Langley also received nods in the marquee categories of Female Artist of the Year and New Female Artist of the Year.

That’s an impressive feat for a singer-songwriter who released her debut album, “Hungover,” in 2024. Langley’s musical partnership with Green, an country star from Jacksonville, has given her career a boost, of course — and all of Green’s five ACM nominations this year are tied to “You Look Like You Love Me.”

He’s nominated with Langley for Single of the Year, Music Event of the Year, Visual Media of the Year and Song of the year (as both artist and songwriter). Langley is listed as the primary artist for the song, with Green as the featured performer.

Green and Langley already have one award win with “You Look Like You Love Me,” which nabbed the 2024 CMA trophy for Musical Event of the Year. The two performed the song at the televised ceremony on Nov. 20 in Nashville, causing quite a stir.

Rolling Stone, for example, praised the charismatic duet in a recap of the ceremony, calling it as one of the top moments of the broadcast. “They were on fire, making the greatest case yet that the CMAs need to devote more time to fresh faces, especially when they have a song as good as this one,” writer Joseph Hudak said. “Performance of the night? Darn close.”

“You Look Like You Love Me” can safely be called Langley’s breakthrough to the big leagues of country music. According to Billboard, the song reached No. 1 on its Country Airplay chart, No. 7 on Hot Country Songs and No. 30 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.

Langley’s been busy on concert stages, too. Her solo tour has been selling out this year, including a Feb. 13 show in Huntsville at Mars Music Hall, according to her Instagram. She’ll return to her home state in May for an appearance at Wallen’s Sand in My Boots festival in Gulf Shores.

Langley’s a special guest on Green’s 2025 “Damn Country Music Tour,“ which includes an Aug. 9 stop at the new Coca-Cola Amphitheater in Birmingham. She’s also opening with Wallen on his “I’m the Problem Tour.” (See all of Langley’s tour dates here.)

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So who is Ella Langley, aside from an ACM phenom? According to her website bio, she’s a country maverick with “a rafter-reaching voice” and “a straight-shootin’ songwriter who pulls no punches when it comes to life, love, and everything else under the sun.”

Langley grew up in a musical family in Hope Hull, about 10 miles south of Montgomery, and started her career with performances at bars and festivals in Alabama.

“I always want to be real,” Langley said in a 2017 interview with the Montgomery Advertiser. “It’s important to me to be authentic in my music and my performance. More than anything, I want people to connect to my music and believe what I’m singing. I also just love for people to have fun when I’m performing. Nothing makes me happier than to see people singing along or getting up to dance. It’s also important to me to keep pushing myself and to work hard every day.”

She lived in Auburn for a time, majoring in forestry at Auburn University, before moving to Nashville in 2019, according to an interview with People magazine.

“I luckily got in with a great group of people during that time that I’m still writing with to this day,” Langley told People. “All they do is write and they love it, and they appreciate it, and it’s part of their life. Being surrounded by that made me grow so much as a writer and an artist.”

Langley released her debut EP, “Excuse the Mess,” in 2023. The Tennessean called Langley “an Alabama artist whose wit is as biting as her pen is mighty” in its review, and said the EP “explores stellar songwriting at heartbreak’s edge.”

“Hungover” dropped on Aug. 2, 2024, primed by a promo single of “You Look Like You Love Me” that was released in June and teased on TikTok.

“Langley co-wrote all 14 tracks on the album, and they’re rife with the usual country metaphors, images, and motifs —smoking and drinking, falling in love in bars, regret, heartbreak, trucks and boats and acting tough,“ American Songwriter said. The review described “Hungover” as a reliable crowd-pleaser, saying “country girlies will love this album, as it gives them more of what they’re looking for.”

Langley’s most recent single, “Weren’t for the Wind,” was released in January. It’s included on a deluxe edition of “Hungover” (called “Still Hungover”) that came out in November. Langley currently has 1.5 million followers on TikTok and 1 million followers on Instagram.